Sub menu

San Diego news does good job covering mystery noise

NBCSanDiego received a number of reports from residents of a shaking or a loud noise just before 9 a.m. (Friday, April 13)

The U.S. Geological Survey has not reported a nearby earthquake.

Officials at MCAS Miramar said the noise or vibration was not a sonic boom from their aircraft.

San Diego State University Professor Emeritus Pat Abbott felt and heard it and stepped outside his home.

In his opinion, the sound was atmospheric.

Sometimes, a military exercise known as chaff can cause a similar sound.

Strips of metal foil dropped by an aircraft are used to temporarily hide an aircraft from radar detection.

Source: NBC San Diego

That’s interesting. He remarked that he looked at the house fixtures to see if they moved. They didn’t. That doesn’t mean it WASN’T seismic, just energy emitted via sound rather than earth movement. But there are other options. He notes that these widespread “booms” happen every so often. They could be planes. Here is the news video.

I LOVED the explanation here of chaff. Well done. This is some decent evidence that indeed the boom was caused by planes flying over after offshore exercises.

Post navigation

2 comments for “San Diego news does good job covering mystery noise”

Chew

April 13, 2012 at 10:02 PM

Chaff on board US Navy ships is launched from a system called Super Rapid Blooming Offboard Chaff. The launchers are cordoned off because they would be fired without first notifying the crew. I was about 10 feet away from one when it was fired. My ears stopped ringing after about 5 hours.